Thursday, February 26, 2009

Harper's Crime Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy.

A term Stephen Harper knows well...

Over the last two years, Mr. Harper has done the "tough on crime" song and dance. He's used victim's groups for his petty purposes. The only real thing Harper did on crime was to be the subject of the belief that these Conservatives are "tough on crime".

Horse puckey.

Harper's minions (his "invisible" cabinet and backbench MPs) tied up commons committees for partisan purposes day in and day out, for the past 2 years. His MPs even had a handbook/manual on how to disrupt Parliament - the only party with such a guide (too bad many of them can't read). Remember the Cadman committees? How about the committees that wished to discuss accountability (as it pertained to the Conservative's election financing?)? There wasn't a single committee - including the ones on justice - which these neoCon ideologues didn't turn into a political dog and pony show...

Now - with some very over-reported murders in Vancouver - the PM wants to come out to our town and score some cheap political points. Shame. Using the victims in that way. Who's going to explain to the victims WHY the committees didn't work? Who's going to explain that the dogged partisanship displayed by the HarperCons only changed after the threat of Coalition, and the worry of how he might fare in an election during a Depression?

We're glad Mr. Ignatieff is a leader "on his toes"... We're sure he, or Mr. Rae, or many other Liberal, NDP, and Bloc MPs will step forth and counter the Harper lie. To blame the Opposition for "holding up committees" is beyond a farce - it's a blatant lie - coming from the party which literally "wrote the book" on holding up Parliamentary Committees. For Bloc, NDP, and Liberal MPs to sit back and take this lying down would be folly. We need to be front and center "out-law-and-ordering" the Cons. Face it: the changes coming forward were changes all parties supported, and contributed to. Harper won't admit it, but it's true... (check the Parliamentary records).

The HarperCon's "sat" on the "law and order" file for over 2 years, flummoxed committees, had temper tanturns and tirades (trying to added socially conservative values to already punitive measures), and now come out with proposals which were already rolled out, or were floating around in committees for years - and approved by all parties.

What gives?

Basically, with the economy tanking, kids with guns are the perfect segway for Mr. Harper and his party. It couldn't work out any better if he had wrote the script and handed out the guns himself. Forget that crime is down to record lows. Forget that YOUTH CRIME is less than one third what it was only a couple of decades ago... This is not what the Conservatives - ANY conservatives - want you to think. Conservatives rule by FEAR. Fear of immigrants. Fear of those different than us. In the US Conservatives sell fear of terrorism and Mexicans... and African Americans... and... FEAR OF CRIME is another of their "pet projects". What better way to charm their traditional supporters (gun industry, defense contractors, private security firms, oil companies, military, etc.)?

The problem for modern conservatives in the "fear of crime" area, is the reality: that crime is at record lows. How do they skirt the truth? It doesn't hurt that 200 cable channels owned and operated by big corporate conservatives and their conservative friends all have the ability to manufacture "news" at their leisure.

What's the leading Global News story tonight? Gun violence in Vancouver. "Asian Gangs". "South Asian Gangs". Local papers? Crime. Guns. Youth. Even when crime is higher per capita in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, AND Calgary, the "sensational" Vancouver stories top the charts? Why? the media loves "dirty laundry", they love a "story", and they love blood and guts on the front page. Fear sells papers. Fear sells guns. Fear sells duct tape and canned goods and cottages in the woods and homes in suburbia (away from all "those people"). Fear is the best marketing tool in a modern capitalist state.

FEAR has always been a conservative's best friend. Media sensationalism will create the fear that will make the public think Harper's lame measures are helpful. Only a forthright and vigilant Opposition can hold Harper's feet to the fire...

We must... or he'll continue to tell his tall tales... his "whoppers", and the list grows:

- Environment

- Obama this, Obama that

- Law and Order

- Economy and economic "action" (or "in-action" in his case)

- Etc., etc., etc.

His real name should be "Prime Minister Whopper". Not just due to diet, but also they way the truth doesn' seem to know him...

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VICTORY FUND

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am quite sure the multitude of kangaroo courts and witch hunts the Liberals launched tied up more committee time than anything the Conservatives ever did. The truth is the Liberals are all about easy treatment of criminals and allowing early release and lenient sentences which simply put more and more criminals on our streets. On top of that, they use the schools to teach children that it is all society's fault and there is no sense of personal responsibility for anything they do. Liberals designed our current justice system; one thing most people will agree on is nowhere in that system does justice play a part. The more money and lawyers you have the more manipulation of the system allowed. Liberals wrote the book on hypocrisy - especially when it comes to crime issues; all sympathy goes to the criminal and the victim isn't even an afterthought.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he's made all the folks in Vancouver feel safe again. (That was the reason he went there, wasn't it?)

WesternGrit said...

Uhhh... Ron? Ron? Earth to Ron. Stop reading from the Con Playbook for a second. The Conservatives were the ones holding up committees. Do I need to bring forward transcripts from all the committees now? You can look them up yourself. We had Con MPs not show up, prevent quorum, fail to show for votes and appear as witnesses.

They wrote a book on it for God's sake...

Oh yeah, we Liberals are for leniency... Yeah sure. Uh huh. That's your asinine retort? We're for stopping the source of the problem. Don't conservatives feel we should nip the problem in the bud? Remember the search for Osama and Al Qaida (sp?)? Take care of the problem at the source. Harper's band-aid isn't a solution.

Our justice system consistently tends to be the fairest in the world. Our crime rates are among the lowest.

The right simply wants to profit from crime... Commercial "prison farming" like in the US. Weapons sales.

Your comment about lawyers is quite erroneous. The system does victimize some... but it's usually the poorest of petty thieves. "Blue and White Collar" criminals often walk. The Conservative "friends" who destroyed our economy will perhaps not even face jail time. Some will go to "club fed". The Conservative "crusade" against pot fills the prisons with hapless potheads and two-bit felons, while the real criminals: the gun traffickers (including gun dealers), the corporate bandits, walk.

Many of us who've chanced to study criminology and related sciences, know that harsher sentences are a waste of money. A placebo for the victims and public. The problem has to be nipped in the bud.

Self-acclaimed "experts" in crime-fighting (like many conservatives) fail to even consider that harsher punishment doesn't stop the crime. It only makes the avoidance behavior more aggressive. They don't want to go to jail, so they shoot another innocent, or a police officer, in an attempt to get away after they just robbed a dope dealer...

Common sense is often a better approach than "hot-buttons" and fear. Too bad Conservatives prefer fear.